John Grasso always believed Affirmed Action was talented. It took a while for the trotter to get the chance to prove it, but he is making believers of others now as well

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Affirmed Action, the winner of all three of his starts this year, is the 9-5 morning line favourite in his delayed second-round division of the Horse & Groom Series Thursday (March 17) at Meadowlands Racetrack. The second leg of the series was postponed from last week because of heavy rain. The $96,000 final is scheduled for March 24.

“He’s right on schedule,” said John Grasso, who bred, owns and trains Affirmed Action. “He’s done everything we’ve asked of him so far this year. We pointed him toward this series and he’s been getting better and better every week. I can’t ask for anything more.”

As a two-year-old, Affirmed Action won two of four starts on the New York Sire Stakes circuit before being sidelined by a stress fracture. He raced only twice as a three-year-old, but was shut down again. He resumed his career in earnest in March 2010 and won five of 23 starts last season.

“When I brought him back as a three-year-old I thought he had a chance to be one of the top horses,” Grasso said. “That’s why we breed horses, to race in the big races like the Hambletonian and Yonkers Trot and Breeders Crown. We thought we had a Hambletonian horse. I brought him back, but he wasn’t right. The bone wasn’t healed a hundred percent.

“Last year, it was catching up. We knew the horse had talent. We might not have won the big races (as a three-year-old), but we were going to give them a tussle along the way. He was meant to be a good horse, he just never got the chance to show it.”

Affirmed Action is a son of Conway Hall out of the mare Joanns Action. His mother is a full sister to Approved Action, another horse bred, owned and trained by Grasso, who won the 2000 New York Sire Stakes championship and was second in the Yonkers Trot.

This season, Affirmed Action won two overnight races before winning his Horse & Groom division in 1:54 two weeks ago. He is eligible to a number of stakes races, including the Cutler Memorial and Titan Cup at the Meadowlands and the Maple Leaf Trot.

“That’s the part we live for, to see him in the big races, and see him perform,” Grasso said. “We’ll keep racing him and see where the bottom is. I’m not saying he’s the best, but he’s good. This horse just naturally wants to beat you. He knows how to finish what he starts. You don’t teach that, they’re born with that.”

In that way, Affirmed Action is like the horse he was named to honour -- the thoroughbred, Affirmed.

“Affirmed always intrigued me when I watched him race because nobody thought he was as good as he was,” Grasso said. “They’d always talk about Alydar, but he never beat him. Affirmed was always there.

“When I saw (Affirmed Action) as a baby in the field, he just reminded me of Affirmed, the way he was playing out in the field. People always said I was crazy, but I said this horse is going to be a champion just like the horse he’s named after.”

This story courtesy of Harness Racing Communications, a division of the U.S. Trotting Association. For more information, visit ustrotting.com.